pic: 1538 Wiring 2/4/2013

[Aidan S.]

Originally Posted by Iaquinto.Joe

Good documentation and little changes helps keep labeling unnecessary. Unfortunately we haven't mastered this technique yet

I agree that good documentation is key, but even with that labelling is a necessity. It eliminates the risk of a mistake being made if a component has to be swapped. From experience, I can say that having labels at either end of our wires made my life a whole lot easier at competitions when I was on my team's pit crew.

[connor.worley]

Originally Posted by Aidan S.

I agree that good documentation is key, but even with that labelling is a necessity. It eliminates the risk of a mistake being made if a component has to be swapped. From experience, I can say that having labels at either end of our wires made my life a whole lot easier at competitions when I was on my team's pit crew.

Since everything is cut to length and zip-tied down near its relevant component, it's pretty hard to accidentally swap in the wrong cable. We've never had a cable fail.

[theawesome1730]

Originally Posted by connor.worley

We've never had a cable fail.

Doesn't mean they won't. On our practice robot we had a PWM short to 12 volts and it caught fire. It killed a victor, the PWM and the sidecar. Had our PWMs not been labeled a 5 minutes swap could have taken a very long time

Edit:Moral of the story: Label everything! Especially the little cables to festos. When you have 6 festos and 2 breakouts things get real hairy real fast if they aren't labeled

[kiettyyyy]

Originally Posted by theawesome1730

Doesn't mean they won't. On our practice robot we had a PWM short to 12 volts and it caught fire. It killed a victor, the PWM and the sidecar. Had our PWMs not been labeled a 5 minutes swap could have taken a very long time

Edit:Moral of the story: Label everything! Especially the little cables to festos. When you have 6 festos and 2 breakouts things get real hairy real fast if they aren't labeled

I'm not a huge fan of labeling where it isn't necessary, especially in our application.

As Connor mentioned, cables are neatly ziptied and cut to length.

At the San Diego Regional, we happened to have a metal shaving short out our digital side car, meriting a complete replacement. The digital sidecar was replaced and tested in under 2 minutes. Not many teams can replace a fully loaded DSC in that time even if it were labeled.

It's just personal preference.